God's Oath-Man

According to Genesis 2:16f, "And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die." The word translated as commanded is in the Hebrew tsavah, to enjoin, set up, order, or appoint. Stigers translates it very tellingly as adjured.(1) From the moment of his creation, God adjured or commanded man. The creation mandate, the limitations on his exploration and sampling of the garden, and the locale of his life were all ordained and ordered by God. Man was placed under orders; he was commanded or adjured.

In any court of law, men speak under oath. A royal throne, and its king, is always a court of law, so that men approach a king on a different basis than they approach other men. To be in a king's presence is to be there by his grace (Esther 4:11), and to be his oath-man, to be under his command and bound by his word. Even more so, this is true of God. Men stand before Him by His grace, not to debate with Him but to hear and obey His command-word under oath.

Man was created a covenant-man. All men are either covenant-keepers or covenant-breakers. Basic to the covenant is the fact that man is necessarily under oath, having been created by God to fulfil His mandate. This oath could be, on solemn occasions, formally ratified to emphasize renewed or particular promises, as witness Genesis 15 and Exodus 24. At all times, however, all men are under oath to God: they are either oath-keepers (or covenant-keepers) or oath or covenant-breakers. To be under oath is to be potentially under either blessing or malediction. 

God, as the Creator-judge, places all men under His mandate, under His law, and therefore under oath. Men live in God's law universe, and every area of it is circumscribed by law and oath. Men remind themselves of this fact by extending the province of God's oath to human relationships. There is an oath of office, a court oath, and more. Marriage begins under vow, as does the ministerial office, the medical, legal, and other professions. In a variety of ways, men witness to the necessity of an oath-bound world. 

The oath enjoins consequences: "in the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die." To exercise dominion and subdue the earth under God ensures the blessings of Deut. 28:1-14, whereas disobedience ensures the maledictions of Deut. 28:15-68. These consequences are inescapable, because the world is God's creation, and there is no brute or meaningless factuality therein. No isolated act or fact exists in all of creation. 

It is the essence of sin to believe in isolated facts and acts and in brute factuality. Original sin is to believe that man can be his own god, determining good and evil for himself (Gen. 3:5). Situation ethics believes that there are no moral absolutes and that the morality of an act depends on the person and his needs. Each opportunity to act, and each fact, are thus isolated from God's law and made dependent on participating man for meaning. Adultery in this perspective can be good or bad, depending on the situation. The sinner thus believes that his act is an isolated one, not a part of a chain of consequence. 

When I was very young, as soon as I learned to read, I began to read the Bible, again and again, from cover to cover. It was often startling reading, as I came to understand more and more of it. A visiting American pastor was horrified to learn that I was reading all of the Bible, including Leviticus. He stated with some feeling, to my embarrassment, that he would not want his children reading such passages in their early years! An earnest man, he eyed me as though I were a potential menace. The fact is, however, that saturation in the whole of the Bible made me intensely and fully aware that this world is God's creation, and that there are no isolated acts, and no reversible acts. Later, in my teens, I found it appalling that others of my age failed to see that acts have irreversible consequences and that nothing in God's universe is ever done in an enclosed or secret corner. 

To be God's oath-man is to know that the Lord is the "discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight: but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do" (Heb. 4:12-13).

This means that we believe and obey every word of God, and live by them (Matt. 4:4). The Bible is God's covenant book which sets forth the covenant law. Traditionally, the oath of office in the U.S., especially the presidency, has been made on an open Bible, because the oath is to the covenant God in terms of His covenant law. The Bible is God's command-word because it is the oath book, God's oath to man, and man's responsive oath to the Lord. 

Second, through holiness, righteousness, knowledge, and dominion we apply God's covenant requirements to every area of life and thought as our sworn duty. As Christians, we are doubly under oath, in Adam and in Christ. Our redemption restores us to an oath-keeping status in Him. 

Third, while the consequences of our oath are for us blessing or malediction, the purpose of the oath goes beyond us: it is the Kingdom of God, and His righteousness or justice (Matt. 6:33). To narrow our concern to our consequences is thus to sin. The covenant book, the Bible, is not oriented to providing man with peace of mind, or personal fulfillment. These may come, and will come, only as by-products. God's holy purpose and Kingdom is all in all. We must look beyond ourselves to know the purposes of God. 

To be God's oath-man means thus to serve no alien masters, including ourselves (Matt. 6:24), but rather to serve God with all our heart, mind, and being, and our neighbor as ourselves (Matt. 22:36-40).

1. Harold G. Stigers: A Commentary on Genesis. (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1976). p. 70.

[From Systematic Theology, vol. 2, p. 916-918.]